Not for arachnophobes

Well, it's Halloween, so I thought I should enter into the spirit of the season and post someting a bit scary. She's a Walnut Orb-wever Nuctenea umbratica, and has a very wide and flattened body, with a leathery skin. She hides during the day under loose bark and after dark she constructs an orb-web that can be up to 70 cm in diameter. The body is about 1cm in length, so she's not as scary in reality as she looks in the picture (though apparently those jaws can pierce human skin). For the photographer, she has the advantage that she sits perfectly still.

We found her in an orchard near Wisbech, a magical place of gnarled old trees, strange-shaped fungi and fermenting fruit, which is being managed for a wide range of wildlife. It's very different from the modern commercial orchard, which generally has miniature trees (for easy picking) of uniform size, and where most wildlife is seen as a threat to the crop. Further images can be seen here.

Happy Halloween everyone!